Raising Sunlight in the Zombie Apocalypse
by pheony
Summary: They were worlds apart before the whole apocalypse happened, but now they walked on even ground, struggling, surviving, trying to save their own skins. Their worlds narrow down to one. They collide. What happens when two opposites find each other? Rated M for the language and explicit themes on future chapters. Daryl/OFC
1. Prologue - Of Worlds Apart

**Author's Note:** _Hi everyone~! This right here is my first ever work of fan fiction ever. It's a little rough, and I'll really appreciate some constructive criticism to improve, so please feel free to give some feedback! :)) The story starts a few years before the actual show, and skips through some of the episodes... until our star-crossed walker-hunter couple collide and find love (hopefully, we'll see) in the midst of the zombie apocalypse. _

_Yay! Here goes nothin'!_

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**Prologue**  
**Of Worlds Apart**

She was late. Again. She had ran for two miles after she hopped out the unmoving cab sitting in the infernal traffic. She didn't even have time to change from her sweaty flannel shirt and just dashed in through the open doors of the cultural center. The guards had tried to stop her, but she didn't have time for them. She slipped past, ducking under arms and ran for dear life until she came to the last double doors. A lady in a suit and a silver name badge stepped in front of her, asking her questions that didn't seem to register in her mind. All she could think about was that she was late, and she was going to miss her sister's biggest night.

"Get off me!" Tala screamed as two strong hands yanked at her backpack, bringing her small body with it, off the floor. She kicked and squirmed and all she wanted to do was open those heavy maple doors in front of her and watch as her sister plays Rachmanninoff's Piano Concerto for the very first time with world renowned Maestro Waltz and the Jules Philharmonic Orchestra.

"This is a bow and tie event, ma'am," the woman at the door said icily, and looked her up and down. "By invitation only," she added. The man with hammy hands held her tightly by her backpack, keeping her at bay from scratching at the woman and pouncing for the door.

"I have my dress in my bag," Tala groaned, "Just please let me in. Please, please. I'm on the list. Chrystal Cassanova. Here. I have my invitation here somewhere," she said, and pulled at her backpack, trying to dislodge it from the guy behind her. She was rummaging inside the mess of her bag when the doors opened, and a yelp erupted from the man who had just emerged from it.

"Tala! What are you doing?!" Tala's father growled as his face turned purple.

"Dad!" Tala stood up from the pool of her belongings strewn on the carpet, and despite the furious face her dad was sporting, she felt relieved seeing him. "Dad, dad! Is it over? Did I miss it? I... I don't know where my invitation went... I'm sorry!" She stuttered.

"Come over here! Look at you!" Her dad pulled at her hand forcibly after grimacing at her outfit. "She's with me," He turned to the woman and the man in the black suit.

The entered the concert hall, and Tala was surprised there wasn't any music playing. It was already thirty minutes past six, and her sister's concerto was the second piece of the first set. There were hushed murmurs and light scuffling of paper and fabric as people shifted in their seats.

"Your stubborn sister refuses to play without you present!" Tala's dad looked like he was going to explode. "They've been waiting for you for the last ten minutes! It's a nightmare! Where have you been?!" He hissed as he waved his arm to the man by the curtain, and pushed Tala to her seat. By this cue, the heavy curtains covering the stage split open, revealing the orchestra, beautifully lined up in a crescent formation around a shiny ebony grand piano, where her sister Chloe, in a pretty, white taffeta dress sat gracefully, smirking at her.

Tala almost chuckled aloud. Instead, she shook her head affectionately and grinned back at her twin, thanking her profusely with that silent telepathy only twins have. She had waited for her. Risked the wrath of the two hundred people who paid to see her play to either praise or tear her apart after the show. Now, mostly, they were going to tear her apart for making them wait for ten long minutes. But that smirk on Chloe's face said she didn't care one bit. It was a Rachmanninoff. Piano Concerto No. 2. Op. 18. Any other concerto, and she would have played with or without Tala. But this one was Tala's pet piece, her favorite music, the apple of her ears, her very heartbeat, and Chloe had to wait.

Maestro Waltz walked into the center of the stage and there was a tentative round of applause that soon roared into a unison. Chloe looked at Tala one last time and winked at her before her demeanor completely changed from play to serious business. Chloe nodded at Maestro Waltz, and the Maestro nodded in return, clapped his conducting stick on his music stand and raised it in the complete silence of the room.

The first notes came like deep whispers, awakening, slowly gaining boldness with every set of strokes, dancing on black and white, and just before she thought the delicious rumble of notes would tumble out on their own to drown in her ears, the parade of strings enveloped them beautifully, and Tala couldn't help but let her eyes flutter closed as the romance of notes tugged at her heart in the sweetest way she knew. She could almost see the music in the blackness of her world inside her shut eyes, like pulses of silver light. She forced her eyes open then, to get a glimpse of her twin making her the loveliest of sounds, her slender fingers trilling and gliding through the ivory and the ebony in all the right places. Tala would remember this moment forever.

The building vibrated as every soul inside the domed room stood to their feet and filled it with a thundering applause. Chloe delivered flawlessly, the glorious arrangement Maestro Waltz had conducted for her, and the roaring appreciation didn't die down for several minutes. Tala didn't know when it started, but she found her eyes wet with tears of pride and love for her twin Chloe. She looked at her mom to her side, who was crying too, and her father to her other side, who was wiping a tear away from his cheek, nodding, and smiling down at her. Everything was perfect.

Meanwhile, Daryl Dixon's only music inside his cold cell was the steady clinking of water droplets to metal, as the leak from a pipe just outside his cell dropped down to the pan on the floor. Drip. Drip. Drip. He groaned and turned over on his bed to face the cold wall. It was already his second time in prison in his thirty years of existence, and things weren't lookin' up for him. It was just a stupid, drunken, bar fight, but he managed to get the other guy in a coma, struggling for his life on a hospital bed.

"He deserved it right. Damn well, he did," Daryl muttered and scoffed at the wall. He wouldn't have pummeled the poor bastard if he hadn't broken a bottle on Merle's head. But the bastard did, sending Merle bloody on the floor. That was when he saw black and next thing he knew, he almost killed the man. Yes, Merle started the brawl, but it sure was not going to end with a Dixon on the shorter end of the stick. That was what Merle had taught him. You gotta always be on top. Take control.

Merle was fine. He didn't even go to the hospital for stitches even though he needed them. What was stupid was that once again Daryl found himself locked up because of something Merle had instigated, and Merle was never in the prison with him. It was always him who got the shorter end of the stick when it came to the two of them. He loved his brother. He's blood. But there were also plenty reasons to hate him, and hate him he did. But he's all he has. He wondered if Merle was even going to try and bail him out. He closed his eyes. He was going to be here for a while. Just fuckin' perfect.


	2. Chapter 1 - Five Years Later

**Author's Note:** _A fairly short chapter :| But I felt like it needed to be written as is. . Still deals with a little historical background on our main characters... I promise the story'll pick up real soon :))_

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**Chapter I**

**Five Years Later**

It was the twins' twenty-fourth birthday in seven days, and the Cassanova family had been planning a huge party for them. Chloe had been successful in the last few years and had made a name for herself, traveling all over continents and performing for audiences of thousands. She had just come home from a tour to an apartment she and Tala shared in New York, but Tala wasn't home as well. She had been traveling too, but not for the same reasons Chloe had.

A note on the fridge told Chloe that Tala just had to make a quick trip to Haiti and would be back in two days. Chloe smiled. For the last few years, Tala had been going around the continents visiting orphanages and volunteering for relief organizations. It was what she loved doing. They were orphans themselves, adopted by the Cassanova family when they were barely a year old, taken into the warmth of their home, given love, given everything they could ever need. And Tala believed this was the least she could do to give back.

It wasn't that their mom and dad were opposed to what Tala did with her life. They just worried about her, and constantly wished she would just stay put and manage fundraisers here in the comforts of American soil, get a Master's Degree or something, or even get a real job. But Tala was headstrong, and would not relent. She often tells them she's only got one life to live and that she's going to live it without regrets. And so far, she's got none, even when she didn't have a steady income and just did odd jobs while she was home in US soil. She also made some money by selling photographs she takes while traveling, but she'd spend most of her time in campaigning for awareness and endorsing the orphanages she'd visited. She liked the simple life. She discovered early on that she could live without the spa, or designer clothing, or her Mercedes Benz.

Her twin, Chloe supported her in every way she can. Tala had sacrificed so much for her in ways nobody else knew, and she's eternally grateful. Most of her tours were fundraisers to help out Tala and her cause, and in that way they were a team.

The party Mr. & Mrs. Cassanova had been planning would be in their home in Georgia, and the whole family would be together again for some significant time at last. The twins hadn't been in Georgia since Christmas last year, and Chloe felt a rush of excitement just thinking about being home again. Plus, their older brother, Sean was coming home too. He'd been also out of the country for years, in the Middle East for the last two years, commanding his troops in special missions.

Next week is going to be a blast.

* * *

"Boo-yah!" Daryl yelled as he stood up from where he was crouched. He'd just shot that deer straight through the head. He smirked and pulled his crossbow closer to his chest before plodding towards the spastic animal in its last, few, dying breaths.

"Venison tonight," Daryl murmured proudly to himself. He'd been doing that a lot lately. There was nobody to talk to out there in the wild and he'd been there for at least twelve days. He wondered if he should head back home. Merle was high as fuck when he'd left, banging two blondes on the couch, and Daryl just didn't want to have anything to do with it. He'd rather be out hunting before Merle got him in trouble again. He'd learned his lesson. When Merle was high to the heavens, better get the fuck away.

He pulled the arrow out of the deer's temple, and just stood there awhile, admiring his work, before dragging the thing to his make-shift camp. He skinned it, gutted it, cleaned it by the stream flowing nearby, and by the time he was done with it, the sun had already set. He was starting a fire when a crackling of leaves came from behind him. He didn't stir. He'd know the sound of those steps on those boots anywhere.

"Merle," he drawled, feeding the small flame he'd just started.

"Well, well, well!" Merle stepped in towards him and the building fire. "There you are lil bruther," he said as he circled in front of him, hands on his hips. Daryl glanced up at him and just snorted. At least he didn't sound or look that drugged anymore.

"Watcha got there?" Merle asked as Daryl pulled out his skewered meat and laid them over the fire.

"Venison," Daryl muttered.

"Venison!" Merle cried delightedly, slapping his thighs as a grin covered his face. "So while I was starving there in our goddamn shack, you here feastin' on deer? How very thoughtful of you," he said sarcastically.

"Tsk, get off my back," Daryl spat as he turned the skewer over to brown the other side. Merle seemed to tense at the sight of it, and the aroma of the cooking meat started to waft around them, making both their bellies growl.

"I have a good mind to beat ya for speakin' to your older brother Merle that way," Merle said, but with less conviction. He was distracted by the smell of food. It meant he hadn't eaten a while. "But I'll let you off," said Merle. "Say... anymore of that venison lying around here somewhere?" Merle asked after a short while.

Daryl waved to a tree a few feet to his right where he'd hung all the meat. Merle was there and back in no time, roasting a huge chunk of meat on a machete.

"Any beer to wash this down?" Merle asked after finishing off at least three pounds of meat.

"Fuck you, Merle," Daryl snapped.

"Ohoho! That the way ya talk to yer bruthah who'd bailed you outta that shithole you were locked in? Show some little gratitude," his brother spat, kicking dirt on Daryl's face.

'You took me outta there coz ya needed someone to pay off your debts! An' I've been workin' my ass off, so fuck you and get yerself a life!"

Merle guffawed at that. "Get a life?! Hah! Get a life! That's precious comin' from you, lil bruther!"

Daryl lunged at him, connecting his fist to his brother's face. Merle easily flipped him over and retaliated with his own knuckles. Dammit. It was his thirty fifth birthday today if the calendar in his head was right, not that he was really keeping tabs on his birthday. Still, the heavens had gifted him a beautiful deer to feast on, and Merle just had to come over and treat him to a birthday black eye.

"You got something I can wipe my ass with?" Merle kicked him on his side early that next morning. He grunted awake. He was sore, and the morning light was stinging his eyes.

"What?" Daryl droned, annoyed.

"Get me that newspaper under your head. I need to take a shit," his brother answered. Daryl shifted from under his sleeping bag and yanked the newspaper he'd laid his head on and threw it at Merle. Merle caught some of it but let the other pages drop on the ground.

Something caught Daryl's eyes. He waited until Merle was gone to the bushes before picking up the page that piqued his curiosity. He'd be damned before he let Merle see him reading any sort of literature. He gingerly opened the flap and saw the picture that intrigued him. There was a half-body shot of a smiling woman in an expensive-looking white dress, her one arm cradling a bouquet of red roses, and her other arm waving in the air. His lips quirked to the side. He'd never seen such beautiful, happy eyes. Even through the crappy colors of the newspaper print, he thought he felt those eyes burn into him. He quickly read the article heading:_ Chloe Cassanova to Perform at Atlanta Symphony Hall_. His own smile turned into a scowl. What was he doing admiring the likes of her? He never really liked little miss perfects, spoiled rotten and prim and raised in beds of roses. He crumpled the newspaper in both hands and threw it over the stream... But she did have the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen.


End file.
